Again, Like This, Together
by Elin B
Summary: Nami and Usopp are taking it easy towards the end of the Fishman Island arc. Fluff, lightly Nami/Usopp.


AUTHOR'S NOTES: Originally written to be posted on April 1, Usopp's birthday, this is a short-ish unbetaed fic featuring Nami and Usopp with just a touch of shippiness. It's set towards the end of the Fishman Island arc. Nitpicks and other concrit as well as general feedback is much appreciated.

DISCLAIMER: The characters and situations of One Piece are rightfully owned by their creator, Eiichiro Oda. They are used here without permission for entertainment purposes only. This fic is not to be used for profit and should not be reposted anywhere without the consent of its writer.

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Again, Like This, Together

A One Piece fic by Elin B

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"So. Here we are, huh?" says Nami, a bottle of wine in one hand as she walks over to where Usopp is sitting with his back to a pillar, a plate with grapes next to him. The big celebration is going on all around them. She slides down next to him, drinking from the bottle and then helping herself to the grapes.

"Yeah," he sighs happily. "I've eaten so much-!"

"Watch it, you'll grow fat."

He giggles. "I'll work it off."

They sit quietly for a while, rowdy songs and a great deal of other party noise going on behind them. Someone has found a saxophone. It is probably Brook.

"Feels like we've had many parties like this," Usopp says at last. "But they're all great." She nods, too mellow to say very much.  
"I liked the one in your village the most," he says suddenly. "In some ways."

She gives him a surprised look. "Really? Why?"

He picks at the grapes, not looking at her. "I guess because it was the first one... And everyone felt so free and happy... not that they didn't in the other places, but... It was new to me. And it was _close_. It was East Blue."

She grins, feeling quite light-headed after all wine and beer she's downed already. "I remember you were standing high on a platform telling everyone of your exploits." And looking so happy some of those exploits were actually real now. "Still..." she elbows him lightly, "I'd have thought you had more fun once you climbed down from there, though. To dance at the tables or around the campfire where everyone else is."

"I didn't like it the best in _all_ways," he admits. "But it felt so real. Like something from a story, but it was real."

She nods. "It really did. Something from a dream for me." She tries to remember if it had felt unreal to her, any of it. But she doesn't think so. Luffy's victory had been so clear and absolute, the battle witnessed so powerful; and she had been in her home village, with the people she'd known as far back she could remember.

She takes a whole bunch of grapes. "Say Aah."

He opens up, lets her put the grapes in her mouth. They both lean back and then they are holding hands, and she isn't sure how it happened, who took whose hand first. Maybe she should be embarrassed, or at least secretive – but she just shrugs and leaves it be. It feels right: a little silly, but the right kind of silly.

They sit quietly like that for a long, peaceful moment. She thinks, _I've missed his smell._She's missed everybody's smell, really, but she hasn't had the time to think about it before this. It's been a very long day.

She breaks the silence first, on impulse. "I wasn't worried about you, you know."

He glances at her. "No?"

Nami laughs, just a bit. "Nope. Not in the least," she says cheerfully. It is a lie, of course, but not as much as it could be. "I knew we'd all make it. I knew you'd come back."

After all, they were all split up by an outside force: none of them had wanted it to happen. There'd been nothing wrong with their will and spirit, just their fighting strength. But she had felt absolutely rock-hard sure that Usopp would never think again that weakness meant fundamental unworthiness, rather than a motivation to train. Neither would anyone else of them. Just as absolutely sure as the way she'd known, ever since that night in Cocoyashi, that she could leave the past behind now, the tainted allegiance and exhausting duty both. That she really was able to laugh from her heart and follow her dream again.

Though that was only part of it. Ever since she'd seen Luffy's message in the newspaper, and had realised the others would see it too, wherever they were, she'd felt strangely calm about all the unknown dangers and trials the others would be facing. They would have seen the message and understood it; therefore, they'd all be okay. It wasn't logical, but it made sense to her.

He sticks out his tongue at her. "Oh yeah? Well, I wasn't worried about you either, so there! Not in the least. I was more worried about those you'd run into!"

She lets go of his hand and bonks him on the head, not very hard. "No need to go that far. And your beard patch looks silly," she adds after a moment, not that it has anything to do with it.

"Does not," he huffs, nose in the air. "You're just jealous."

"I'm jealous of a _beard_?"

"Hey, you'd look good even if you had one. I mean..." Usopp puts a hand over his mouth and looks dismayed, realising he's complimented her instead of the opposite.

"Idiot." She leans over and kisses him on the cheek. If his nose wasn't in the way she might well have gone for the mouth. Just for a moment, just briefly. _I'm just a little drunk,_ she thinks, and her face does feel warm, _and it's been two years. And there's a victory party. It's not my fault._

He looks a little startled, and blushes, but he doesn't flinch or start violently or anything. Was he downright expecting this, she wonders sulkily, or is it just the general mellowness?

He takes her hand again, this time holding it between both hands. "Nami, I... uh..."

"I knew you'd be okay," she mumbles, leaning into his shoulder. Actually, his smell is a little different now, she realises; there's still a lot of gunpowder in it, but it's got a spicy, musky undertone to it now. Must be those weird seeds he's fighting with these days. "We're all okay."

He breathes in, slowly: she feels him tense up, wondering what's wrong. But then he breathes out again, relaxing. "Yeah." She can hear him swallow. "We really are."

And then there's a pause and a strange kind of quiet in the midst of party noise still; and if Chopper and Sanji hadn't come over right then, with Luffy and Jimbei soon to follow, she's pretty sure he would have kissed her back.

But that's all right, too. Nami only sighs a little, knowing she does need to sober up. Next time they'll have a party will be somewhere in the New World. There'll be more excuses, then.


End file.
